Laura Poitras, the MacArthur Award-winning filmmaker whose video revealed the identity of the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, was previously on KUCI's Subversity show talking about her film, The Oath, on the casualties of the war on terrorism. She also talked on the show about her own experiences with Homeland Security, which has detained her numerous times in her travels through U.S. airports. She was named a MacArthur fellow in 2012, with an award of $500,000. She also made My Country, My Country, on Iraq, which was nominated for an Oscar. Snowden first contacted her in January this year.

Click on a link to our announcement in 2010 of our interview, which took place 17 May 2010, when she preceded our interview with the directors of the Harvest of Loneliness, a documentary on the bracero program.

Video by Poitras on Snowden at the Mira in Hong Kong:

Poitras also wrote some of the stories on Snowden's disclosures about widespread NSA surveillance on Americans and foreigners for the Guardian and the Washington Post.

She is currently in Hong Kong documenting the Snowden case as part of a documentary on whistleblowers.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Howard Gillman, the newly appointed Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at UC Irvine, is coming to UCI from USC (where he was a recent dean) and is immediately facing opposition not just from an activist faculty group who went public with a letter, but also, now, from the UCI student body leadership.

Howard Gillman Will Need to Reach Out to Critics

On 30 May 2013 the ASUCI legislative council overwhelmingly voted to "condemn" the appointment and urged Chancellor Michael V. Drake to reverse himself, something not likely to happen.

The activist student group, ESCAPE (Ethnic Students Coalition Against Prejudicial Education), has issued the following press release:

Associated Students of UC Irvine Condemn the Appointment of Howard Gillman

May 30, 2013—-In a vote of 12-0-1 the Associated Students of UC
Irvine (ASUCI) passed a resolution condemning the appointment of the new
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost.

R48-75 “Condemning the
Appointment of Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Howard Gillman”
demands that Chancellor Drake retract the appointment of Howard Gillman
and redo the selection process of the Executive Vice Chancellor and
Provost with more student voice and representation.

Howard Gillman, former Dean of the College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences at the University of Southern California, has been appointed as
the new Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost.

Within the last few
weeks, various entities on the UC Irvine Campus expressed grave concern
and disappointment of the new appointment, including a coalition of
professors, the Irvine Faculty Association (IFA). The IFA released a
statement stating that “Dean Gillman’s fairness in handling personnel
cases, as well as his relationship with faculty in general and American
Studies and Ethnicity faculty in particular, have been called into
question by reports from USC.”

According to the author of the resolution
Summer Ko, “Given our current campus climate, UCI Administration is
handling the situation poorly. As the student voice on campus, we could
not allow for such a flawed process to be upheld.”

UC Irvine administration claims the selection committee was diverse and well-represented the student body; however, they fallaciously make these claims as there were only 3 students (1 undergrad, and 2 graduate) out of the 23 members, and the fact that that their diversity stems from the claim that racism was not present as there were “6 members of African descent”- a statement of blatant institutional racism.Thus proving, the process of selection was inherently flawed.

______

Subversities brings readers the complete resolution; the recorded vote below indicates the vote was 12-1-0.REQUEST FOR ACTION BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Whereas, the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) has had an interim Executive Vice Chancellor Provost (EVCP) for the 2012-2013 school year,

Whereas, Howard Gillman, former Dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California, has been appointed to be the new EVCP of UC Irvine,

Whereas, the Irvine Faculty Association (IFA) released a letter to Chancellor Drake to express their concerns regarding the appointment of Howard Gilman,

Whereas, the letter states that “Searches of broad concern to the campus should be conducted as openly as possible so that faculty from various areas and perspectives can raise issues that may not be evident to the necessarily few colleagues on any search committee”,[1]

Whereas the letter also states that “Dean Gilman’s fairness in handling personnel cases, as well as his relationship with faculty in general and American Studies and Ethnicity faculty in particular, have been called into question by reports from USC,”

Whereas, the letter also states that “...many Humanities chairs as well as many individual faculty who complained of his lack of support for their research and lack of respect,”

Whereas, the letter also states that “Many senior faculty left during his term despite USC’s able financial position, and there is a perception among USC faculty that Dean Gillman’s retention and tenure decisions were uneven, unclear, and partial,”

Whereas, in November, USC Professor Mai’a K. Davis Cross filed a federal discrimination complaint against the University of Southern California for denying her bid for tenure, arguing that the institution had a history of denying tenure to women and members of minority groups in the humanities and social sciences[2],

Whereas, Ms.Cross and her lawyer have contended that her tenure case included procedural violations by a former dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences—for example, that he, under the authority of the provost, made “cold calls” to scholars outside Cross’s field,[3]

Whereas, the committee said it had found "clear and persuasive" evidence that the "cold calls" the former dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences made to scholars to seek their views of Ms. Cross's work were procedurally defective and "materially inhibited" the tenure-review process,[4]

Whereas, she also filed a complaint in November with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, citing data she collected with a colleague in the political-science department,

Whereas, the data shows that 92 percent of white men who were considered for tenure from 1998 to 2012 in the university's social-sciences and humanities departments were awarded it,

Whereas, that compares with 55 percent of women and professors from minority groups who worked in the same departments during that period, according to documents filed with the EEOC,[5]

Whereas, the “Needs Attention” exercise threatened to affect the academic reputation of UC Irvine, becoming citable as evidence of administrative complicity in an inhospitable culture for minority students and faculty, [7]

Whereas, given recent blatantly racist incidents, and the campus climate, the need for the growth of Ethnic Studies is important more than ever,

Whereas, there has been no transparency, as there has been no public discussion regarding the selection of UCI’s new EVCP,

Whereas, Chancellor Drake states on his website, “It is my goal to infuse our values into the core of everything we do at the University of California, Irvine. These values – respect, intellectual curiosity, integrity, commitment, empathy, appreciation and fun – foster the creative process, build stronger bonds between people and inspire a shared sense of purpose. It is my hope that as dedicated members of the UC Irvine community, we will continue to live by these values and promote the highest standards of excellence in all that we do,” [9]

Whereas the appointment of Howard Gillman to be EVCP of UC Irvine does not reflect “the creative process, build stronger bonds between people and inspire a shared sense of purpose,”

Let it be resolved that ASUCI Legislative Council condemns the appointment of Howard Gillman as the EVCP of UC Irvine, as his actions do not reflect the University’s values of respect, intellectual curiosity, integrity, commitment, empathy, appreciation, and fun,

Let it further be resolved that ASUCI Legislative Council urges Chancellor Drake to revoke his appointment of Howard Gillman as EVCP and immediately begins a new search committee that is transparent and includes more than two students,

Let it further be resolved that ASUCI Legislative Council urges Chancellor Drake to hold an open and public town hall to publicly address the concerns shared by undergraduates, graduates, and faculty,

Let it further be resolved that ASUCI Legislative Council condemns Chancellor Drake for hosting a bow-tying workshop on May 9th instead of increasing awareness beyond a campus-wide email,Let it further be resolved that ASUCI Legislative Council create an ad-hoc committee to be named “Transparency and Accountability of Administration Committee” that will consist of all members of ASUCI Legislative Council,Let it finally be resolved that this committee will continue to the 2013-2014 year and will advocate the University administration to be transparent and that their actions rightfully reflect the interests of the students of UC Irvine and the values of UC Irvine.

In the wake of the June 4 commemorations worldwide, we bring you a 2006 talk at UC Irvine given by Wang Dan, who in 1989 was a key student leader of the Tianamen protests in Beijing. He was subsequently put on a most-wanted student activist list, arrested and imprisoned, and on his release went to the United States.

He obtained his Ph.D at Harvard, where his dissertation in 2008 compared state violence under Mao and Chiang (Kai Shek on Taiwan) in the 1950s.

He now is an academic in Taiwan. He is banned from China (and Hong Kong as well). His memoir, in Chinese, 王丹回憶錄 : 從六四到流亡, came out last fall in Taiwan.

Cover of Hong Kong publication

Listening to his 2006 talk here, I am struck by how he relevant his talk still is, given that China still faces many of the same problems he talked about. Wang Dan explains how corruption in China moved the Peking University and other protesting students to seek democratization and discusses the challenges China still faces.

Wang Dan's talk first aired on KUCI's Subversity show on June 19, 2006. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democracy in the School of
Social Sciences at UC Irvine, Wang Dan spoke on May 25, 2006 on the topic: "Rethinking the Past and
Looking to the Future of China." The audio includes a Q&A.

About Me

This is a blog that pierces convention and disrupts the status quo. We seek intelligent turbulence over boring stability and creative uncertainty over certitude. Chaos is good. Stay tuned for future missives!